


The Beginning of an Era

by Silver Ink (SilverOwlCity)



Series: Prelude, Interlude, Coda [1]
Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: Anti-Magic Laws in United States of Auradon (Disney), Bad Decisions, Canon Rewrite, Discrimination, Exposition, Made up lore, Magic, Not Canon Compliant, Sorry Not Sorry, questionable decisions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-29
Updated: 2020-06-29
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:49:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24975622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverOwlCity/pseuds/Silver%20Ink
Summary: A complete rewrite of the opening scene of Descendants to fit with my story, The Rise of a Queen, and elaborate just a bit on what feels a little like handwavy social/economic/political science.Once upon a time, about twenty-five or so years ago. . .
Series: Prelude, Interlude, Coda [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1943536
Comments: 1
Kudos: 18





	The Beginning of an Era

**Author's Note:**

> This does go directly with my story 'The Rise of a Queen'. So far, I haven't included enough lore to befuddle people, but it's only a matter of time and this is as much a reference for me as it is for you.
> 
> Some of the names of kingdoms are not names mentioned in any Disney movie. I've taken them from the Twisted Tales series - specifically from 'Part of Your World' by Liz Braswell and 'So This is Love' by Elizabeth Lim. These books are where I pull some of the lore for Eric's kingdom from as well as the name I'm using for Cinderella's prince. I got the name for Snow White's prince from 'Mirror, Mirror' by Jen Calonita. FAr as i'm aware, I've not used anything that relates to their plots, but I recommend you guys read them and the rest of the series, they're pretty good.
> 
> If this is too dry for you guys, it's not all that important and is more story building, so go ahead and skip onto the next story in the series.
> 
> Without further ado, The Beginning of an Era (An Overture).

Once upon a time, about twenty-five or so years ago, Belle married her Beast in front of six thousand of their close, personal friends. The wedding of the century with the venue of the century.

Instead of a honeymoon, they decided to try and unite all of the kingdoms on the continent of Auradon. They didn’t quite succeed in gaining _all_ of the kingdoms’ allegiance, but they did still form a group of allies that would be called the United Kingdoms of Auradon.

And once the United Kingdoms of Auradon had been formed, they elected one king to lead their council – and the Kingdoms’. That was, of course, King Adam the Beast himself.

King Beast’s first act as reigning High King was to collect all of the villains, their sidekicks, and essentially anyone who disagreed with the crowns of his and the surrounding kingdoms. These prisoners were then sentenced to serve their lifelong sentences on a large isle just inside the country’s waters. It was henceforth known as the Isle of the Lost.

Many of the nobles supported it with none of the kings and queens outright dismissing the decision. Queen Belle was the only one, it seemed, to be wary of this. She had always been a woman for free thought and the change of people. After all, her own husband had been a beastly monster once.

But she had been wary to voice as much in a room with new alliances who were in full support of the decree. Not even when they began to imprison the dissenters of the other kingdoms that were not under their guidance as a small sign of alliance.

The isle and its punishment had only been in use for two or three months when it was deemed a fate nearly worse than death.

The queen of Arawakania, seeking revenge she felt she had never gotten for her daughter, suggested bringing back the worst of the villains from their peaceful slumbers in death. If it was truly worse than death, surely these monsters of all people deserved imprisonment on the Isle prison more than they did death. Their crimes were not kept secret from the rest of the world and as the stories of their defeat spread, so did their treachery.

To the astonishment of Queen Belle, many of the other monarchs agreed with Queen Leah. With a majority in agreement, they turned to the famed kingdom Aurelais.

The Princess Cinderella had a fairy for a godmother – something that made Queen Leah flinch when she’d first heard the words.

Fairy Godmother willing raised the villains from the afterlife. The Isle gained a half dozen or so new inmates the next day and Fairy Godmother created a magic Barrier around the Isle. The prisoners tried more than ever to fight against their imprisonment.

But they could not approach the Barrier.

It repelled everyone from it within a short range and blocked all magic. Although they tried, they could not use the powers they had relied on so well whilst inside the Barrier. Fairy Godmother and the monarchs were pleased with this result.

Despite having adamantly disagreed with the plan, Queen Belle’s tormentor Gaston was brought back and thrown on the Isle with his lackey LeFou.

Queen Leah was quite pleased to see the Dark Fairy resurrected and placed in a cage. “A lifetime of suffering in exchange for the suffering she caused is hardly any atonement,” she’d sniffed.

The Moors remained without a queen. Though they held the Dark Fairy in just as low esteem as Queen Leah and King Stefan, their loyalty lied in their blood to their Dark Fairy Queen. They distanced themselves as an ally from Arawakania.

Arawakania was, and remained, the most loyal country to the throne of Auradon.

Ursula’s resurrection and imprisonment were heralded an attempt to sway either Atlantica or Tirulia to join Auradon’s rule.

Crown Princess Attina met with the Council to thank them for the gift, hiding her horror thinly. She and her father held fast to their decision to remain an independent nation.

Tirulia’s response was along a similar path. Despite having been under the spell of Ursula, both the prince and princess found the situation dangerously cruel. Besides that, they used the fact that Tirulia was a vassal princedom under the Alamberian flag to politely and quickly refuse another offer of alliance under the Auradonian throne.

Tirulia did offer a hand in allegiance outside of the Auradonian council’s rule. Agreements for trade and union against enemies, but no promises to keep nor obligations to follow the rules made by the council. It was a seemingly fair trade. And when the young princess Melody was attacked a little over a year later and Morgana found, the Council of Auradon allowed her imprisonment with her sister on the Isle.

Atlantica held the same position as their sister nation, but they had a far more independent nature. They were not as dependent on trade with the other kingdoms and didn’t have to share borders with them. In the end, they were glad to have distanced themselves from the union.

Aurelais was not as glad of that. They were the furthest kingdom from France – the heart of Auradon and home of Auradon City, where the Council reigned. They were not happy to be so isolated from the center of the action. The closest informant they had was Fairy Godmother – who _did_ have a position on the Council as their Advisor to Magic.

She was responsible for the general ban on magic in the kingdoms. She saw how the other monarchs flinched at how she would appear from a rain of sparks. She saw the way their lips curled at her every ‘bibbidi-bobbidi-boo’. And how they would lean away from her in every meeting.

So, she approached the Prince and Princess cautiously and gave them a piece of advice that would forever change their lives.

At the next meeting of the full Council, Prince Charles brought up an idea. With so many people suffer the affects if magic and so many ways the corrupt could use magic, it might be best if such a skill were outlawed. Not on pain of death, but on banishment or life imprisonment. So long as the skilled were willing to stop practicing, they would be fine.

Despite their evident disgust with magic, Fairy Godmother and her patrons were still quite surprised when the law was approved by a majority of the others. But it wasn’t up to the Council, no matter how they presented themselves. Beast held the final and most powerful say in how the law worked.

Magic was outlawed.

It was odd for them to settle, but even Fairy Godmother found she could handle it.

Others were not so accepting.

Maldonia’s king and queen had been spurned by magic before. They had been turned into frogs – lost in a Louisiana bayou for nearly half a year. But their friends had been gifted with magic. Mama Odie was a Voodoo priestess and had been a great help in the discovery of their love. Not to mention the animals they found they could still talk to even after they had returned to their human forms.

The ban o magic was not something they supported, but their hands were tied.

King Adam the Beast was the High King. He was more than just a chairman. Anything he said went and they would have no choice but to obey whatever laws he passed or be thrown from the alliance of Auradon.

Being an enemy of Auradon was not an option. They had reluctantly instated the law, but left the practitioners that knew not to cause harm alone. The Voodoo priests and priestesses were silently grateful for the lack of enforcement and made it their own mission to police those who would not uphold their moral standards.

And Maldonia was swept to the side of the Council – there but of no importance. So, their own magic flew under the radar.

Agrabah had never been outright kind to sorcerers. They had also not been outright harmful or hateful toward them, either. It had long been a belief in Agrabah that magic was tool to be used however the wielder sought.

The Djinn – Genies – weren’t thought much better. For all that they were sentient beings, they were essentially tools as well – slaves to the men who took hold of their lamps. And, though they tried to free all they came across, the future Sultana and her consort could not hope to free all of the Genies.

After Jafar’s reign, more and more fear of magic spread throughout Agrabah and the Sultan found it hard to keep their fears contained. The new law only helped to spur the anti-magic sentiment farther.

The Djinn fled. Those that had been free did their best to gather those still enslaved and carried all lamps to a safe haven. Sorcerers soon followed suit.

Bretland had been under the rule of a wicked queen who used her magic to terrorize. They were quick to accept the ban on magic and kept it with relief.

The young Queen Snow White had only considered magic through the scope of her mother, not as anything innately inhuman. But when her subjects rallied for the banning of her friends, the dwarves, from living within the kingdom’s borders, she felt her hands were tied. She spoke with them and arranged for their safe passage to Aurelais, whose people did not take the law so far.

For years, their relationship was strained. It did not help that she was struggling to reclaim a kingdom that felt abandoned by her father and betrayed by her step-mother.

The joining of her and Henrich’s kingdoms was fairly helpful in mending the relationship with her people, but her relationship with her friends did not recover until after the birth of their first child.

Prince Henrich of Prunham was not nearly as anti-magic as his wife and her people. They had little experience with the subject and weren’t known for any odd rule. It was on the outskirts of Prunham that the dwarves returned to when they had become close to the couple again.

No one was willing to mention the magic of the kiss that had woken the queen up from an endless slumber.

Andalasia had been in a similar state as Bretland – although their queen had falsely claimed to love them in a way Grimhilde had never. Narissa’s skill had never been much of a public topic in or out of the kingdom until after her defeat and death in the other world.

They were all too happy to return to a kingdom as free of magic as possible. Even with their talking animals.

Weselton, although slimy in most politics and more so in morality, was led by a duke that was in no way a proponent for magic. His opposition of the former queen of Arendelle was evident of that. As was his insistence in calling her a monster every chance he got. His dukedom fell easily under the rule of the High King.

It was similarly easy to annex the Southern Isles. With the most famous of thirteen princes being Hans the Betrayer, the kingdom was all too happy to change their association. Not one of the young prince’s brothers supported him and their alliance with Auradon was meant to show that.

None of their new allies was willing to sit next to them at the council meetings.

Arendelle quickly and firmly cut their ties with Auradon when the law was passed. Queen Anna had grown up with a sister whose powers had separated them and was not willing to jeopardize their healing relationship. Not to mention she found nothing wrong with magic of any sort. Not the trolls, nor the magic of the Northaldran Forest and their connection with nature.

Their sister country of Corona was quickly behind them, but took less drastic measures. They remained in a loose alignment in much the same way that China and Tirulia had – minor trade and pending militia only. It was no surprise with a kingdom that would one day be led by a girl who had been born with powers gifted from the sun.

Neverland had never been a place under the rule of any one person. The Lost Boys were content to explore how they would and enjoy themselves while the Tribe of Neverland held fealty to their chief and gods. And both groups were friendly with the fairies of Pixie Hollow and the residents of Mermaid Lagoon.

All three easily gave up the pirates of Skull Rock to stay within the confinements of the Isle of the Lost. Their days of having fun would no longer be interrupted.

Wonderland had barely even been considered. It was a place nearly entirely made and run by magic. They did not form any sort of alliance, but they did allow Fairy Godmother to remove the Queen of Hearts and her court, the Jabberwocky close behind.

China kept to themselves, aligning with Auradon for trade and protection should either kingdom ever fall under attack again. The Emperor and his people were perfectly fine with the way their kingdom was operating. There was nothing wrong with the way their country was run and the potential target they would have by aligning themselves with kingdoms with such powerful enemies as Chernabog would quite possibly change that.

And so, the continent was all but united. On the surface, at least.

Fairy Godmother did, of course, perform one last act of magic before retiring. It would not do to live in a country where the citizens couldn’t understand what their neighbors said. After seeing how the French had attempted to speak Prunhamic and Maldonian, it was clear that to allow such an existence would be problematic, at the very least. So, with the permission of the Council, cast a spell over the United Kingdoms.

A new language was made that day – it merely sprung into existence, nothing scholarly about it. Auradonian descended into the understanding of the subjects, even the Isle’s prisoners, so they could understand each other. While welcome, this act of magic was the last public act to exist. The people called for the wand to be locked away and Fairy Godmother willingly gave up the life she had known.

The anti-magic laws bled into more than just the legislation of the United Kingdoms of Auradon. Unlike with weapons like guns, the people had never considered magic a tool. The people of Auradon didn’t seem to understand that magic could still be used however the wielder wished, despite it being built into them.

So, the magicfolk of Auradon fled. The Enchanted Forest was suddenly flourishing. The fae were joined by sorcerers and Djinn. Everyone who wasn’t explicitly human found themselves outcast. Those who didn’t flee hid away.

Families were all but torn apart. Not one person was exempt from the prejudice. Princess Aurora found herself all but abandoned by her fairy godmothers when they found themselves in danger. Queen Belle was faced with the whisperings of her staff.

Not all those in the castle had been affected by the Enchantress’s spell. The newer members of staff didn’t feel pity for the king and their seniors that had been under a spell, but rather felt that they were monsters after having magic flowing through them for so long. They may as well have been sorcerers themselves.

What she did not notice was the same way that they spoke about her son. The boy was the son of a beast and so they called him. For all his people respected him, they saw him as something beneath them.

Some people grew out of it in time.

But in other kingdoms, they did not.

Princess Audrey was sneered at by the other children. Her mother was friends with fairies – they visited them in the Forest sometimes. Her parents didn’t have time for her, so her grandmother was raising her. They whispered theories just within earshot, yelled them when they thought they could get away with it.

She learned to spurn their spite.

Ben heard his father’s story again and again. He feared he would become the same sort of Beast. The playful growls and chants of ‘petit bête’ were not helpful. He saw it in the fear in his maids’ eyes and the disgust in his peers’.

He learned to rise above it – to be kind in all situations.

If their parents had anything to do with magic, willingly or otherwise, the new generation of Auradonians learned, they weren’t seen as equals. Their peers looked down on them and despised what they saw.

In seeing how her granddaughter was treated, Queen Leah once again made a suggestion to the Council of Auradon.

Education in the kingdoms differed from area to area. Queen Leah proposed to standardize the education across the kingdoms. Education would be provided to individuals between the ages of four and twenty if they decided they wanted to pursue it.

It was not the sort of thing that people expected of the queen. A proposal that directly affected the people without direct benefit to either them or her kingdom – something that it would take a few years to see improvements in – was not like most of the most of the royals to suggest. It was even less like Queen Leah, who was on her way to ceding her throne and not a fan of change.

After the passing of this new act, Queen Leah made another proposal. Up till that point, the children of most, if not all, nobility weren’t attending a school, but under the tutelage of multiple private instructors. It would be easier to teach the children in a similar environment that the other children were going to have. Especially considering they would have a specialized subset of education that revolved around running a kingdom that the other children would have no need for.

Queen Leah proposed the creation of a private school in the heart of Auradon. It would be a school targeted at the future leaders of the kingdoms. Of course, other nobility and citizens could apply for and pay for their children to go if they so pleased, but the main focus would be toward the monarchs.

The moment they heard the words ‘private school’, the rest of the Council recognized the ulterior motivation. But it was still a good idea. Slightly self-serving as her proposals may have been, the Council could admit that they had some merit.

Not only would it make their children’s learning far easier, it would be safer. They would no longer have to schedule appointments with tutors around each other’s children. They wouldn’t have to have a whole patrol to worry about possible assassination attempts. Instead, they could send their children off at the end of the summers’ harvest and festivals and have them returned safely in the spring with more knowledge than they could hope to have taught at home.

It was a good idea, the Council decided. It, too, was approved and construction on and around the education of Auradon began. The next year, twenty young princess and princes were escorted to a new castle near Auradon City with another three dozen or so lower nobles. Fairy Godmother smiled at them happily, glad to be in her new role of Headmistress.

The first class of Auradon Preparatory Academy began. Young Prince Ben looked over his classmates. Some were familiar, others so foreign, he wasn’t sure they would even speak the same language. But something about the castle in front of him made him feel warm. It made him feel like he was at the beginning of a new era.


End file.
